Prisoners 'said Lynndie England abused them'

Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison identified Lynndie England as one of the soldiers who abused them, an army investigator testified today.

“The detainees were very specific about the guards who were there,” including Private England, Special Agent Manora Iem said at a military pre-trial hearing at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Iem said he began interviewing prisoners in January, after investigators were given a computer disk containing the now-notorious photographs in which England and others are shown with naked detainees in sexually humiliating positions.

He said detainees described “a soldier who fit the description” of England, as well as other soldiers on the night shift who included England’s boyfriend, Corporal Charles Graner.

Other witnesses at the hearing have testified that England, who worked during the day in an office part of the prison as a paperwork clerk, would go to the secured “hard site” in the middle of the night to visit Graner, who worked there as a guard.

England is now seven months pregnant with Graner’s child.

A string of prosecution witnesses have described the 21-year-old reservist as undisciplined and promiscuous, part of the government’s strategy of portraying her as one of a handful of rogue soldiers from her 372nd Military Police Company who took it upon themselves to abuse detainees.

Defence lawyers have said England was following orders when she was photographed mocking the detainees and that the US government has made her a scapegoat.

Another investigator testified today that Graner led the abuse.

Special Agent Tyler Pieron said Joseph Darby, the member of England’s unit who turned over the computer disk, indicated “that Corporal Graner was the ringleader in the abuse … When he wasn’t there, it didn’t happen as much.”

Darby blew the whistle because “he was, quite frankly, very afraid for the detainees’ lives”, Pieron said.

Iem said that during his investigation, he learned American guards had handcuffed a detainee to bars that were so high that the prisoner’s feet barely touched the ground.

In another case, a military police officer put a pistol to the head of a detainee brought to the prison after being wounded in battle and said: “I wish I could kill you,” Iem testified.

A smiling England pointing and giving the thumbs-up to naked Iraqi detainees in dozens of images stirred outrage in the Arab world and dismay at home. In one of the most widely-circulated shots, she is holding a cringing, naked prisoner by a leash.

The hearing will determine whether a court-martial goes forward against England on 13 counts of abusing detainees and six counts stemming from possession of sexually explicit photos. The maximum possible sentence is 38 years in prison.